A new legislative session is under way, and Rep. David Agema (R-Grandville) recently tipped his hand by playing a risky card, banking on a Republican majority in the state House.

Agema decided to go after the Michigan Natural Resource Trust Fund, one of the state’s most important and valuable conservation funding programs.

Agema reintroduced three bills that saw no love last year. The package calls for diverting 80 percent of the trust fund’s annual revenues to the state transportation fund and aeronautics fund. The money would go to roads and airports rather than parks, boat launches, natural areas and state parks. The state, he implied, has enough land already.

“It’s getting to the point where the state of Michigan will own the state and the people won’t,” Agema said.

Agema wants to change state spending priorities. He wants roads to get 60 percent of the trust fund revenues. Airports would get 20 percent and parks and trails or state parks would get the remaining 20 percent.

He said infrastructure is the state’s biggest problem. Taking NRTF money for roads and airports would put people to work and leverage federal money, he said, $4 for every dollar spent on roads, and $9.50 for every dollar spent on airports.

“I’m trying to find a way to do this and not raise taxes for the people of Michigan,” Agema said.

Agema said the legislation went nowhere in 2010 because: “We were in the minority last session.”

His bills, HB 4021, 4028 and HJR-B, change funding formulas and call for a referendum. The trust fund is constitutionally protected. Altering where the money goes requires voter approval. Agema’s bills have been referred to committee. So far, there is no hearing scheduled.

Agema said raising fuel taxes to fund roads “is the wrong thing to do.” The trust fund gets its money from oil and gas royalties and revenues generated on state land. Cars, trucks and airplanes use oil and gas, he said, suggesting diversion of the money for those purposes would be appropriate.

Others, however, call this yet another “raid” on the trust fund, something the Legislature has tried before — which is why it is constitutionally protected. The NRTF was created in 1976 to buy lands for public recreation or to protect land for their environmental importance or scenic beauty and help local communities develop land for public use.

The fund embodies the idea of making restitution. We allow oil companies to come in and exploit public-owned lands and in turn use the money they pay to create other places people can recreate outdoors.

The system has worked well.

“Its track record has been incredible,” said Bob Garner, the NRTF chairman. “We are close to having awarded communities $900 million since it began. The federal duck stamp, the first bastion of conservation, has raised $650 million in 70 years. This trust fund has done more for natural resources than any other fund established, including the duck stamp. Just this last year we funded 112 projects.”

The money for construction and acquisition is being spent in townships and counties all over the state, including Kent, Ottawa, Mecosta, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Newaygo and Allegan counties.

It is money that puts people to work for projects that elevate the quality of life without using taxpayer dollars.

“If this (Agema’s legislation) moves forward, it would be devastating,” said Nancy Krupiarz, the director for the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, in Lansing. Her organization works on rail trail development, which has benefited greatly in Michigan from having NRTF funds available.

“If our state is going to have natural resources as one of the pillars for its economic revitalization and prosperity, they are looking in the wrong place,” she said.

Mary Dettloff, the spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said the agency opposed Agema’s bills last year. It remains opposed.

“The point of the trust fund is to mitigate the effect of oil and gas development on public lands and put the money back into public recreation and land conservation,” Dettloff said. “Preserving green space and providing for communities to have top-notch public recreation is part of what makes livable communities in Michigan.”

The NRTF is expected to hit its $500 million cap this year.

After that, those oil and gas revenues will flow into Michigan’s State Park Endowment Fund. That, too, is specified in the state constitution.

State parks have a $200 million maintenance backlog.

“Coupled with the recreation passport, we can bring things up to snuff,” Garner said. “There is no reason why in six to eight years we can’t have the absolute pride of state parks in the nation. Michigan state parks are an integral part of Michigan’s economic recovery.”

Gov. Rick Snyder has suggested he wants to bank on Michigan’s natural resources tourism potential. The NRTF has a crucial role. One can only hope that he means it and is prepared, if needed, to trump Agema’s hand.